Editor’s note: Colorado Politics presents “Which way to better Colorado schools?” We’re offering seven perspectives on upgrading education in the state.

As the Colorado legislature returns to start another session, there are many issues facing Colorado, but as the last year has shown, there are none so important as education.  

The Colorado Education Association’s 37,000 members have set forth a legislative agenda to attract new educators to the profession, while incentivizing those good teachers to stay.

We are asking our elected representatives to focus on three main goals this session:

• Increase funding; as of now, we are woefully behind by nearly $2,800 per student.
• Make the educational experience student-centered and educator-led.
• Address the growing teacher shortage.

One of the biggest issues is that Colorado is continuing to face an uphill battle retaining and attracting high-quality educators. This shortage impacts every single school district in the state – which means it is probably impacting your students. There are more than 3,000 teaching positions currently unfilled in what is a growing shortage crisis.  

CEA wants to create schools our students deserve. We’ve found that good policies are not top-down legislative solutions, but they are led by educators and are focused directly on the student. Teaching is a noble and inspiring career choice, but too often policies undervalue educators and do not respect their voices, expertise and professional knowledge.  

With Colorado being recognized as one of the strongest economies in the country, we are one of the lowest in per-pupil funding. Why is that? The reality is, for far too long, those in decision-making capacities have directed public funds for education to for-profit companies.

Right now, taxpayer dollars are being funneled to charter-management organizations, testing companies and outside consultants. The money set aside for public education should go toward public education, and not for-profit companies.

To address the educator shortage means more funding for our schools. Our collective success in this top-performing state economy is not translating to our classrooms.

Colorado public schools are operating without $672 million this year they should have received according to our state constitution; the state has withheld $7.5 billion dollars from our students and educators through a “budget stabilization factor” since 2009.

What’s the impact? The state reports 95 percent of teachers in rural districts don’t make enough salary to even meet the cost of living. And the rising rents and prices in metro areas don’t allow for many educators to live in the communities where they teach. In fact, the gap between our state’s living wage and the average teacher salary is the largest gap in the country. 

The time has come to put classrooms above corporations. Corporate tax incentives reduced state revenue by about $5.4 billion in 2013. Colorado doled out more than $481 million in corporate income tax giveaways just in 2016 alone. Educators are being forced to pay an average of $656 out of their own pockets to pay for supplies. This is money the state could have collected and used to retain a quality school workforce and help avert the current educator shortage.

Colorado’s millionaire individuals and corporations benefit the most from the state’s remarkable economy and have a moral obligation to pay their fair share to support our students’ success. The legislature can choose to prioritize classrooms over corporations by temporarily reducing corporate tax deductions and exemptions until full public education funding is restored per our state constitution.

Modifying our state’s educator evaluation system to get the focus off of student test scores will rightly place more emphasis on timely, relevant feedback of teaching practice. Colorado educator evaluations are based on an outdated test-and-punish mentality that disrespects the teaching profession, and overwhelms and exhausts students with stressful, high-stakes testing. 

Legislators must recognize the damage an overly harsh evaluation system has done to teacher recruitment and retention. Good teachers with a history of strong evaluations don’t need more scrutiny; what they need are updated textbooks, mental health supports and classroom technology to help struggling students succeed. Teaching is not a job just anyone can do. Those we trust with our children’s futures deserve fair and meaningful changes to their evaluation system.

It isn’t enough to recruit teachers; we must ensure each educator has the resources, support and opportunities to lead that every professional needs. 

The CEA will work collectively with all who share our values for strong public education and believe, as we do, that Colorado students thrive when caring, experienced teachers decide to stay in Colorado classrooms.

Amie Baca-Oehlert is the president of the Colorado Education Association.